Dear friends in Scouting,
Volunteering is at the heart of the Scout Movement, and this year we celebrate it together, with the strength of a Region acting as one movement.
In August, we launched Volunteers that Inspire, the campaign through which the Interamerican Scout Region joins the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development, declared by the United Nations General Assembly. With this circular, we share our progress, provide the materials prepared for you, and open the door for you to join even if you did not take part in the July coordination meeting.
This campaign has three objectives that directly benefit your NSO:
- Publicly recognise and thank volunteers, giving them the visibility they deserve within their community and across the Region.
- Position the Scout Movement as a leading voice on volunteering among media, governments, and partners.
- Engage new adult volunteers by showing the world the value of what current volunteers do. Taking part means gaining visibility, regional support, and a real opportunity to grow.
How to join the campaign
All NSOs are invited to take part and adopt one or more of the following initiatives:
- Regional story series on social media. Between August and November, we are publishing testimonials from adult volunteers across the Region, ideally one per NSO.
- Mass volunteering actions. To join forces and increase the visibility of our work as a Scout Movement, each NSO will organise a mass volunteering action in its country between Saturday, 21 November and Saturday, 5 December. The Region will amplify what each organisation does.
- Symbolic social media takeover. On 5 December, we will celebrate International Volunteer Day across our social media. That day, all Region and NSO accounts will post about volunteering using agreed hashtags and tagging the Region. This will be coordinated through the campaign focal points and the regional communications network.
- Your passion has purpose, an optional kit for NSOs to recruit new adult volunteers, whenever their schedule allows, this year or next.
We know that each NSO has its own pace and its own capacity. That is why we want to be clear: you do not need to take part in everything to be part of the campaign. Any one of these activities counts. What matters most is that your country is present in this regional celebration.
The materials we have prepared for you
The whole campaign comes with a communications kit, designed to make your NSO's work as simple as possible. The idea is that you only need to adapt the templates with your logo and photos, and publish.
The kit includes the campaign's visual identity and the Year of Volunteering logo, social media post templates, video elements, an editorial guide for preparing stories, the consent form, and a press kit with a sample press release, a quick guide for mass events, and the KPIs for that activity. Everything is available in English and Spanish, and can be downloaded here:
Join the WhatsApp group
To coordinate quickly, answer questions, and share progress, we have a WhatsApp group for each language. We ask your focal point to join the relevant group:
To take part, your NSO needs to designate a focal point, join the relevant WhatsApp group, and decide how to participate: with the full campaign, with just one story before 30 September, or with just one mass action between 21 November and 5 December. For any questions, please contact Paula Carrión, Communication and Marketing Coordinator, at [email protected].
We count on you to give this celebration the face of every country in the Region. Every story you share and every action you take makes the volunteering that sustains our Movement more visible. Get your NSO involved, and together, let us make this the year the Americas and the Caribbean recognise those who give everything for young people.
Yours in Scouting,
Diana Carrillo
Regional Director
World Scout Bureau – Interamerica Support Centre